Balaji's Thots

The title refers to the 8 bullets in the gun that is stolen from Sathya(Vettri), an inspector. Sathya, who spent his younger years in a juvenile school after being convicted for a crime he did not commit, is an interesting character who stands apart from the cop characters we’ve seen in Tamil cinema over the years. He is not corrupt but neither is he a supercop out to quell injustice. He is quiet and non-controversial but also has a good heart. So he seeks quiet solutions to issues and is unpopular in his own police station.

After a short journey, the gun ends up in the hands of Moorthy(M.S.Bhaskar) who uses it to commit a crime but the crime has some unexpected repercussions. Moorthy again is not your average criminal. As he goes about his life after the crime, we see that he has a family and was driven to the desperate move because of the problems he is facing. There is subtlety in depicting his situation and Bhaskar nails it with a fantastic performance. Considering that he is such an average Joe, the contradiction comes from the fact that his act was not a spur of the moment crime but was well researched and planned.

The stories of these two characters move in parallel as Sathya tries to retrieve the gun and save his career while Moorthy tries to keep things contained even as they spiral out of control. Their lives are closely linked and they both are forced to act out of character at times. There is a sense of unpredictability to both their tracks that keeps us consistently engrossed in the film. While its not a big surprise that their paths intersect, their interactions are lovely and the scenes are filled with equal parts drama and suspense.

The film is filled with interesting characters who impact the lives of Sathya and Moorthy. Even if some of them appear only for a short time, they play important parts in the story. There are small stories woven around these characters too and the connections these stories establish and the effect they have on the main story are cleverly written. The only misstep is the romance between Sathya and journalist Meera(Aparna Balamurali) which hardly has an effect on the story and worse, leads to some badly picturized songs.

The climax is set up in interesting fashion with a key aspect of the situation mirroring something that happened earlier(and set in motion most of the things that followed). But the actions of the characters aren’t logical and so while there is some shock value, the denouement isn’t fully satisfactory. The subsequent twist about what actually happened isn’t that surprising either.